Tag: Transportation

A California labor agency has determined that, at least in one instance, an Uber driver is actually an employee of the company, not an independent contractor who happens to rely on Uber-provided information to drive her business. But what does this mean for the ride-sharing behemoth?

Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, was disappointed with California’s high-speed rail project, so he has proposed an alternative that, if it’s not just smoke and mirrors, could get you from L.A. to San Francisco in 30 minutes.

Exploitation of bus drivers is just one part of the corporate disemboweling of the U.S. public transportation system. As the destruction of city and state bus and subway services enters its final phase, their unions have either disappeared or lost clout.

Instead of beefing up public transit, cities build neighborhood-destroying highways, cars fill up those highways, cities then build more highways to alleviate traffic, and then yet more cars flood the roads, creating even more traffic.

You there, with the surreptitious driving-while-texting action and also you, with the hands-free gadgetry on your head—take heed. The National Transportation Safety Board, an independent agency that traffics in such matters, wants you both to hang it up.

I am, as of this writing, 144 days away from never again being able to sleep soundly. That is when my 15-year-old daughter, as she delights in constantly reminding me, will receive her learner’s permit.

Oscar Grant was killed on New Year’s Day 2009 in Oakland by a white transit police officer in a case that has drawn comparisons to the notorious Rodney King case in Los Angeles. The trial of the BART officer on a murder charge was moved to L.A., where the jury could start deliberations this week.

U.S. auto regulators have decided to fine Toyota a maximum $16.375 million, having determined that the car company waited “at least four months” to recall its troubled vehicles. Toyota can contest the fine, which, although a record, amounts to a tiny fraction of the total financial impact of recalling some 8 million vehicles worldwide. (continued)

It seems like everyone is investigating Toyota these days. There’s the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the National Academy of Sciences and even the automaker itself. Why not NASA? Apparently Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood was thinking the same thing. (continued)

February wasn’t a good month for Toyota, what with the fallout from the automaker’s recent recall, but Toyota’s pain may lead to a gain for U.S. drivers, in the form of a potential requirement for automobiles to include a brake override system.

President Obama’s $410 billion spending bill may paradoxically end funding for a cross-border trucking program between Mexico and the U.S. Critics of the program cite safety issues around Mexican trucks, while Mexican officials decry protectionism as policies surrounding the NAFTA trade agreement continue to fall apart.

As divers continue their search for bodies in the Mississippi River after Wednesday’s bridge collapse in Minneapolis, federal transportation officials are calling for a review of some 700 similar structures.

Next time you’re stuck in gridlock, keep in mind that many American cities had fantastic public rail systems until Big Auto bought up all the tracks and scrapped them to make way for cars. The Observer reminds us that “it did not have to be like this.”